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Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Anthony Phillips - Slow Dance

This 2-CD/DVD set consists of Anthony Phillips release of Slow Dance. Originally released on the
Virgin label, this showed his orchestral side to him. And it is a very
interesting release that embarked on. Reissued this year by Esoteric
Recordings, it is time to give Slow Dance
another chance and give Anthony the recognition he deserves. He’s been
overlooked from the history of his time with Genesis as an original founder.

Anthony Phillips appeared in the first two Genesis albums
which were the 1969 debut of From Genesis
to Revelation which showed their psychedelic-pop, Bee Gees, and pastoral
baroque music. But it wasn’t until they released their second album and signed
to a new label with Charisma Records in 1970 with Trespass that showed their beginnings of their progressive rock
roots digging deep into of complex music with a story that had a beginning,
middle, and end.

Anthony left the band to pursue studying Classical Music.
While he lacked Theory-based music, he practiced eight hours. But let’s get
straight to Slow Dance. It started
back in June of 1988 when he worked on the album. He wrote the pieces for the
material very quickly. Just as Slow Dance
was almost done, Ant went to the States for a few days to be with his
family. And then the news came to him that Passport Records in which they
released his solo albums, ceased.

This wasn’t good news. Not only Anthony was without a record
company, but he had to pay a debt to management of repaying the money. Now he
had no idea whether or not he wanted to delay the album and look for other
work, but he decided to plow on. After Tarka
was completed with guitarist Harry Williamson, Engineer Simon Heyworth who
worked with him since The Geese and the
Ghost, helped him out on the Slow
Dance project.

He also used a real string section on his album during the
recording at CBS studios in February of 1989. And then, he signed to Richard
Branson’s Virgin label at the spring of 1990 as the album was released in
September of that year. It was a long process in the making to bring it to
life. As I’ve mentioned, Anthony Phillips’ music is different from his time
with Genesis.

It was very different from his previous albums on Sides, The Geese and the Ghost, Wise After
the Event, and 1984. It showed
Anthony’s orchestral side that showed elements between Mike Oldfield, Vangelis,
and Jean-Michel Jarre. It took me a few listens to delve deep into Slow Dance, but it grabbed me more and
more to understand why he was ahead of his time. It may not be everyone’s cup
of coffee, but it grows on you.

The first movement begins with ambient strings coming in
with a heavenly introduction. Ant’s classical guitar sets gentle tones along
with wind instruments. It feels that you have walked through the forest of lost
hope as the images come through your head of what’s happening. There are some
moments of early Genesis and bits of The Enid’s In The Region of Summer Stars.

Phillips takes you for a ride towards scenes for a fantasy
film that’s been done right. The synths delve deep, deep into the watery
tunnels with no chance of escaping. There is some alarming organ notes,
percussion, and clapping rhythm sections. Along with the vocalizations from the
keyboards and fanfare sections, Phillips brings the sombering
electric-classical guitar for this melancholic sound.

It’s almost at times from the first movement. set to a scene of
the continuation of Disney’s Fantasia. The
last three minutes of the pieces shows Anthony giving the listener a chance of
hope of knowing that a new day will happen and it will start over again to be back
of where you were.

The second movement starts to open doors to another parallel
infinite universe as if you can imagine something terrible has happened with
ascending and descending guitars and militant drums. But all of a sudden, it
rises up from the ashes of the electronic drum pads. There is this very
interesting Jazz section for a little bit as Anthony shows a teensy-weensy bit
of a Allan Holdsworth-sque vibe into the mix.

It changes at the 14 minute and 17 second mark as it becomes
a battlefield featuring the string section. It’s a bloody uphill battle. Epic
fanfare horns and knowing its going to be hard, difficult, and brutal and
thanks to the drum program it is again an epic moment in the second act. You
can imagine Ant is a conductor at heart to create this scenario of what’s
happening.

Now let’s be honest Anthony is not Leopold Stokowski, but he
is bringing the magic and ideas in his head come to life. You can imagine the
men who are making the sacrifices in the battle sequence, knowing whether or
not it is going to be their last goodbyes they say to their families. It then
changes into an aftermath of what has happened. The strings come forth near the
end of watery effects to give the second movement, a mourning farewell.

The second disc which is Slow
Dance Vignettes. It contains nine pieces during the making of the album.
And three of them stood out for me. The Guitar
Adagio from Slow Dance is a penultimate section from the first movement
that has the gentle tone. You can close your eyes and imagine a sun rising
through the west as Anthony channels Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi’s acoustic side
with both Laguna Sunrise and Fluff.

With Clarinet Sleigh
Ride, Ant delves into the waters between both Tangerine Dream and Kraftwerk
in the background. It’s an unearthed track from the sessions that I’ve never
heard before and it’s very interesting to have some of these melodic rising
pieces as if Anthony Phillips was doing a score in the late ‘80s for a special
on PBS.

Then, there’s this newly mixed version of the string parts
with an emotional heart-tugging stir between the crossover of Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite and Bach’s Air on the G String with Lenta Chorum. There’s also a DVD
containing a 5.1 mix of the album by also. When Slow Dance was released in that year in the UK on September 24th,
it was the last album to be released on Vinyl, Cassette, and CD. It’s been
considered a fan favorite along with Ant himself.

I hope one day Anthony Phillips goes back and revisits this
album and moving from the electronic parts he used on the album and bring a
real orchestra to give Slow Dance a
chance to be reborn. The package is amazing. It contains the 2-CDs and the DVD,
followed by a replica poster, a 16-page booklet containing promos of the album
in Japan, original master tape, liner notes by Jonathan Dann interviewing
Phillips about the origins, making, and release of the album, and a note
written on manuscript paper that says “NO
WAY OUT. PIECE V”.

If you love the music of Anthony Phillips, then Slow Dance is really worth exploring and
highly recommended to show again Anthony’s orchestral, new age, and symphonic
side to him.

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About Me

I'm a blogger/freelance writer from Houston, TX who writes album reviews because I enjoy it. Even though, I'm not the best writer, there is no stop sign for me. I have a love of Progressive Rock music, Jazz Fusion, and Early Heavy Metal music from the '60s to the early '80s. I went to HCC (Houston Community College) for nine years and have completed my degree in Music in Performance: Jazz Studies. I've been writing Progressive Rock and Symphonic Metal reviews starting back in 2008 on my blogsite and it never gets old.